The nation got its first glimpse in nearly three weeks of Tian Tian, Mei Xiang and the unnamed cub Thursday morning when the Smithsonian National Zoo brought a slate of live cameras back online. The cameras had been shuttered along with the rest of the zoo on Oct. 1 when the federal government closed. The zoo itself is still closed and will reopen to visitors on Friday.

New York (CNNMoney) - If the United States were to get close to the debt ceiling deadline, or even go over it, the consequences would be unthinkable, warned U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.

In a series of TV interviews, Lew sounded alarm bells over the fast-approaching limit to the U.S. borrowing authority. With the deadline just over a week away, Lew blasted lawmakers for "playing with fire" by not raising the debt limit.